The Fall of the Cardinal
by EAP615
Summary: Ruby has had it with Team CRDL and their bullying. And strength is in numbers. Sort of sequel to Pep-talks at Dusk.


**So, here is my second story for the RWBY category. It serves as a kind of sequel to my first story, but you don't have to read it. Hope you enjoy!**

**RWBY is fully owned by Monty Oum and Roosterteeth**

* * *

If anyone was asked who they would say were the most hated people to be at Beacon Academy, most would probably say that the title would belong to team CRDL. Cardin Winchester, Russel Thrush, Dove Bronzewing and Sky Lark. The four boys were, in summary, arrogant, egotistical, cruel, and discriminative to all, especially faunus. It seemed as if they had a special hatred towards faunus. They would always try to put others down, regardless of who they were or what they could do, they always believed themselves to be superior to all, even the teachers. Just about everyone at school despised the team, whether they openly expressed it or not.

Ruby Rose was one of those people. Just because she never really outright said anything about her having negative feelings about the boys did not mean she didn't have them. She had been raised to be respectful to all, not matter who or what they were. And CRDL went against everything she raised to stand for. Ruby, however, after some advice from the monkey faunus by the name Sun Wukong, had devised a plan to stop all this hatred and cruelty: Beat up CRDL and intimidate them into backing off. It was not a plan most would expect from her at all, but she was also raised to stand up for what she believed in, and she believed in no discrimination among anybody to anybody. But she would not be able to do this on her own. Being the smallest student attending Beacon, she would probably fail to achieve the intimidation part of her goal. So she had to enlist some friends with her. Ruby knew it would be a challenge to convince some of them, especially her white-haired partner, whom she was speaking with now.

"You want to do WHAT?!"

"Weiss, it's f-…"

"No, Ruby! This is one of the most insane plans I've ever heard you come up with! It's not even the typical reckless plans with high chances of death! It's downright juvenile! A whole new sub-category for your continuously growing list of insane, borderline suicidal plans!"

The two were standing in their dorm room with Yang and Blake nowhere to be found. Ruby knew that Weiss was probably going to be the hardest of her friends to convince, which is why she tried going to her first. And so far, Weiss was proving her right. When she offered her proposition to Weiss, she looked an absolutely terrifying cross between disgust, shock, and anger.

"I can't believe that _you _of all people would come up with this!"

"They're hurting people, Weiss! The faunus aren't humans, but they're still people!"

Weiss sighed at this. After Blake was revealed to be faunus herself, Weiss had begun to gradually have more respect for faunus, and was revolted at CRDL's mistreatment of them.

"I will admit to despising Cardin and his little group of arrogant, degenerate friends as much as you do. But this is _not _how they should be handled. Are you aware of the consequences of what you want to do at all?! We could be _expelled_! Are you willing to risk your dream of becoming a huntress for this?"

"It's the right thing to do!"

"Beating people into submission is _not _the right thing to do at _all_! What makes you think that it is?!"

"Because they deserve it! And it isn't right to bully or discriminate people for any reason!"

"I know that! But this isn't any way to solve a conflict! Professor Ozpin or Ms. Goodwitch should handle this!"

"You know that never works!"

"Maybe you're right, but I will no-" "You know that never works!"

"Maybe you're right, but I will no-"

The argument was broke by Yang and Blake's entrance into the dorm room. Ruby and Weiss probably continue their argument if not for the expressions on their teammate's faces. Even though they were obviously attempting to cover it up with a casual expression, the two partners had a visual epitome of pure anger painted on their faces.

"Yang, Blake," Ruby asked tentatively, "What's wrong?"

* * *

Yang was returning from the cafeteria with small meals for herself and her partner, who was reading in the library. The two were spending 'quality partner time' together, as Yang put it. Last time, Yang had urged Blake for a night into the city for shopping and exploring the town. As much as Blake tried to look miserable, Yang knew she enjoyed it, even with she had to almost literally drag her from the academy to do so. Today, Blake had wanted to spend time in the library, and of course Yang had followed her. After attempting to start a conversation for several minutes, keyword 'attempting', she had gotten hungry and headed for the cafeteria in search of sustenance.

When she had returned, Yang saw a figure standing near her and Blake's table she had not expected. Team CRDL's own Sky Lark. Sky was obviously talking to Blake, but Blake was trying to pay no mind to the degenerate that was obviously bothering her. There was one comment in the one sided conversation where Blake looked above her book and narrowed her eyes at the boy. Yang had no idea what he was doing there, but she suspected it was nothing good. Her suspicions were confirmed as Sky reached across the table and grabbed Blake's bow, exposing her cat ears. Up until now, nobody had made any attempts at harassing Blake over her faunus heritage, even after word had went around the school that she was. But Yang was by no means was going net this punk get by messing with her partner.

Nope.

Not at all.

Yang stormed over towards the table and put a threatening hand on Sky's shoulder. When he turned around, Yang glared at him. "You have 5 seconds to step away from my partner before I make sure that they find what's left of you in fish stomachs at Yale Docks." She said in a coldly calm manner.

Sky, obviously not believing that Yang would follow through with her threat, had a cocky smirk on his face as he said, "Oh, you gonna defend pussy cat over here?" Yang's grip on Sky's arm intensified and her eyes turned crimson and her hair glowed as she activated Ember Celica and placed it under his jaw. "You have no room for to be a tough guy, Lark." She sneered.

Sky attempted to look unfazed at her threat, but fear was still mildly playing across his features. "Whatever, this freak's not worth my time anyway."

Sky then walked out of the library, trying to do so in a confident manner. Yang picked up the discarded bow and returned it to her partner. Blake put back on her ears, but still had that look of anger plastered across her face.

"Blake?" Yang attempted to console her faunus friend. "Blake?"

"Let's just get back to the room." She replied in a worryingly calm manner. Yang frowned at her friend and complied.

They returned to their dorms in silence, both still furious at the predicament that had just occurred. Before entering the room, the two heard the other pair of Team RWBY yelling behind the closed door.

'It's the right thing to do!'

'Beating people into submission is not the right thing to do at all! What makes you think that it is?!'

'Because they deserve it! And it isn't right to bully or discriminate people for any reason!'

'I know that! But this isn't any way to solve a conflict! Professor Ozpin or Ms. Goodwitch should handle this!'

'You know that never works!'

The partners shrugged and entered the room

'Maybe you're right, but I will no-'

Weiss and Ruby had stopped their argument and looked at the recent arrivals with confused and, in Ruby's case, concerned looks.

"Yang, Blake, what's wrong?" Ruby asked.

Yang gave her best attempt to smile as she replied, "Everything's fine, sis. Nothing to worry about."

Ruby could tell that everything was _not_ fine. But before she could investigate further, Yang cut in "So, what are you arguing about. I thought you already went past that point."

Again, before she could ask anything, Weiss replied, "Ruby wants to beat with weapons team CRDL and force them to never bother people anymore! And she wants us to join her! Isn't that the-"

"I'm in."

Everyone was so surprised by Blake's sudden interjection, that the whole room went quiet for a few seconds.

"What?" Weiss finally broke the silence.

"Ruby wants help ending Cardin and his teams' discrimination, I'll gladly join."

"I'm in too." Yang said with an unusual seriousness swimming in her voice.

Ruby slightly grinned with the knowledge that two of her three teammates would help her.

Weiss, however, was not as pleased. She put her hand to her face and grumbled, "I should have known this would happen."

"Come on, Weiss!" Yang cried to the heiress. "These punks have picked on people long enough!"

"**I know.**" Weiss placed heavy emphasis on her words without looking up. "But I will not harm someone if it's not the only option."

"Even if they're picking on your own teammate?" Blake asked quizzically.

This immediately got the white-haired girl's attention. "Excuse me?" The light anger in Weiss' voice could not be mistaken.

"Yes. Sky came by and bulled my bow off my head and called me a freak."

This immediately struck a nerve in the heiress. A very big nerve at that. Although the snow and raven haired girls had their differences in the past, they worked past it and became close companions, both in and out of battle. CRDL had officially crossed a line that they never should have crossed.

The Schnee heiress was silent for a few moments before speaking up, "Exactly _how_ will we attack the degenerates _without _placing them in the hospital? Because I have a few propositions in mind."

Ruby smiled lightly as she and her accomplices devised the plan.

* * *

The following morning, team RWBY found their targets doing what they anticipated, bullying a poor rabbit faunus girl, Velvet Scarlatina. She was backed into a corner with tears rolling down her cheeks as Cardin pulling on her animal appendages while his team laughed behind him.

"Leave her alone, Winchester."

The four boys turned to the red and black haired girl and all smirked. Cardin stood in front with Russel and Dove on either side of him with Sky standing behind. "What? You gonna call me mean names? Try to make me cry?" Cardin sneered towards her.

"No and yes."

"Oh, hey there pussy cat. Decide to call the fire department to help you?" Sky chuckled at Blake.

Cardin, Dove, and Russel all snickered at the comment, but Blake was unresponsive.

The four girls then pulled out their 'Stupid Bully Beating Tools of Justice' as Yang had named it. Which turned out to be socks greatly expanded as they were filled to the ankle with miscellaneous hard items. CRDL had a good chuckle from this. "So you little ladies are going to beat us up with stuffed socks." Dove asked with amusement.

"Not exactly." A masculine voice came from behind them.

CRDL turned behind them to see Jaune with a similar weapon that he used to whack Sky in the jaw.

* * *

Ruby knew that the four of them could probably get CRDL to back off on their own, but Ruby _really _wanted to get through to them, so she enlisted in their fellow team JNPR, knowing they hated CRDL as much as her own team did.

Nora was ecstatic to hear the plan. She practically overjoyed at the chance to beat Cardin Winchester and his goons into submission. Ruby knew she would be a good asset.

Ren was surprising quick to agree with the plan. Although he kept playing under the excuse that he 'had to make sure that Nora didn't actually _kill _anybody' Ruby could see his ulterior motives.

Jaune had to get past the initial shock that the normally sweet and shy fellow team leader had come up with such plan before agreeing to it. Honorable as he was, he knew that there was no way CRDL would change with the kindness of their hearts, if they had any.

Phyrra was the most reluctant to join. Anyone could tell she was conflicted between her noble morals and her hate of racism and how CRDL always treated faunus. Hearing about Sky and Blake in the library was what pushed her towards joining in.

Ruby set JNPR to attack from behind to make CRDL drop their guard and over power them.

As soon as Sky hit the floor, the two teams converged. As Jaune continued to beat Sky the others pushed through. Nora frantically made her way to Cardin, having joined the assault as long as she could _try _to break_ one_ of his legs. So Nora immediately started swing her sock at Cardin's left femur bone causing Cardin to cry out in pain as Nora laughed with jolly.

Ruby couldn't help but question the orange haired girl's mental health as she joined her in beating Cardin.

Blake joined Jaune in wreaking havoc on Sky with the sweet taste of revenge as Yang & Phyrra and Weiss & Ren attacked Russel and Dove respectively. They eight began to mercilessly beat the four victims in the face, chest, legs and groin as Velvet watched nearby in glee and confusion.

The group stopped the beating and pushed Cardin, Russel , Dove, and Sky into a corner and all glared at them with Ruby standing upfront. She then leaned towards the boys in growled at them in the most sinister voice she could muster. "We just did this to you because we are all tired of seeing you treat faunus like the way you do. Blake, Velvet, everybody. If we see or hear about you doing it ever again, we're going to have a problem. And you **don't **want us to have a problem with you. Understand?" The four nodded frantically. "Good." And the eight left as abruptly as they had arrived.

* * *

It did not take long for the group to get caught. Roughly an hour after attacking CRDL, Goodwitch's voice came on the intercom: _Will teams RWBY and JNPR come to my office __**immediately. **_Her voice sounded absolutely livid, a signal for big trouble for the two teams. They expected as much, but it did not make them feel any less nervous about the potential consequences.

* * *

The eight sat in the hallways outside of Goodwitch's office. She has unexpectedly already speaking with someone when they all got there, so they had to wait before entering. Other than Weiss' grumbles of how her perfect student record was going to indefinitely be jeopardized, there were hardly any words exchanged between any of the teens in the hallway. They continued this way before Jaune finally spoke to Ruby, "You know, I never knew you could pull of the intimidation thing so well." Ruby looked up at him, "Huh?" "Intimidating CRDL. I didn't know you could pull it off so well. I guess it comes from your teammates." Jaune had tried to make that last sentence a joke, but that didn't stop Weiss, Blake, and Yang giving him unreadable looks. Jaune panicked, "N-No I-I-I didn't mean it as an insult! I-It's just that… you're all intimidating and scary! Not as in bad scary, just- just…" When he realized that his desperate attempt at a save had miserably failed, the awkward blonde looked at the floor and mumbled, "I'll shut up now." Even if he couldn't see it, Blake had developed a small smile while Yang tried to hide her chuckles. Weiss just rolled her eyes in annoyance. Phyrra smiled at Jaune at good-naturedly patted him . handled Cardin. As was I."

"Yeah! I'm proud of you, baby sister!" Yang exclaimed.

The words of praise made Ruby grow a huge, face-splitting grin on her face. The banter was cut short as the office door opened and, unexpectedly, Velvet Scarlatina, stepped out. She walked past the group and gave shy smiles to each of them, all of which were returned with smiles, waves, or nods of acknowledgement. As the bunny faunus left, Goodwitch stepped out "All of you come in" in a still outraged, but not as much as the voice on the intercom.

* * *

To say that getting chewed out by Glynda Goodwitch was an unpleasant experience was a severe understatement. Ruby had already experienced that blunt of Goodwitch's lectures before, but this was far beyond from previous encounters. But during the heated lecture, Goodwitch mentioned the reason for Velvet's presence. She had arrived to defend RWBY and JNPR and to inform her that they had defended her from CRDL as they had been tormenting her and other faunuses for several months. They were still in serious trouble, but they were in less hot water than before, as it _was _in defense of a fellow classmate. In the end, they two teams were assigned two weeks of detention. Glynda said that she was being generous to them, as CRDL was being assigned in three weeks of suspension collecting garbage and tree sap samples with four _months _of detention. In her mind, Ruby considered them getting off scot-free. Weiss had a look of disappointment on her face at her perfect student record being destroyed, but Ruby knew she did not regret it. So they went to detention and did not complain or defy.

Fellow students had heard about the CRDL beat down and highly praised them for their bold move. Ruby especially was practically being named the lady of the month. The few times Ruby ever saw Cardin, Russel, Sky, or Dove their eyes went wide and their bodies almost shut down in pure terror. And every time they did so, Ruby couldn't help but feel a sliver of joy every time.

Things had definitely changed at Beacon Academy. And she, Ruby Rose, had been responsible for it all.

And it felt pretty good.

* * *

**Well, there it is! Again, if it's good, tell me. If it's bad, tell me. If there's anything that could be done better, tell me. A writer's got to learn from his reader as much as a reader's got to learn from his writers, after all.**


End file.
